Mileage 1 - Weekly Mileage 6 miles
And so the eve of the marathon is upon us. Day 111 of this training blog. The big day is tomorrow. The training is done. All that is left is to try and cram as much carbs into my body as possible. It;s like an orgy at Nigella Lawson's. I'm fucking stuffed.
2 bowls of porridge, toast, tea, banana, banana chips, peanut butter (oh god it's so good), poached eggs on toast, carrot cake, mash, vegetables, 3 litres of water, coconut water, oh and silk cut. It's more than I've eaten all year. Jesus I'm so full. Moving is hard. I cannot even think of running tomorrow. I may have to get a winch crane to carry me round. Or a milk float. Stuffed.
The gay boy triathlon suit is clearly out the window. I'll look like sofa bed if i wear that. I reckon i've put on 4kg's in the past 3 weeks just by eating tons and not running much. Classic schoolboy marathon error. Maybe one day I'll learn.
But it's tomorrow! Wow. All that training. 12 weeks, early starts, winter days, cold nights, dark, rainy training runs, injury, tendonitis, Sunday long runs, boring the shit out of everyone, carbs, carbs, Oh god not another carb. And tomorrow it comes.
For anyone who hasn't run a London marathon before, here's the deal. You get excited. You love it. You get to the start, thousands of people, you're buzzing. Name on your vest, money raised for charity even if you don't care which charity because you got a golden bond spot you just want to run. It's time. You Vaseline your bits, bung your bag onto a truck, down a last minute drink, line up, chatter and then the buzzer goes and your off. Well in 15 minutes it takes to get across the start line, but you're off.
You get the buzz, applaud the crowd, high five everyone, feed off the noise, run really quickly, look at the sites, you love London, you love the world. 6 Miles, Cutty Sark. Amazing. 12 miles Tower Bridge. Incredible. 18 miles Canary Wharf. Insane!!
'Come on Nick', 'Keep going' - The crowd are awesome. You love it. Everything is amazing. You love everything. You love Life. YYYEESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!
And then, 3 hours later. There you are Caked in snot, bogeys hanging out of your nose, sweat dried all over your body so you caked in white salt looking like you've been jizzed on, eyes sunken, mouth open, legs wobbly, you look like an extra from Dawn of the Dead. You're fucked. Nipples bleeding, nits hurting, skids deeper than Jordan's Crack, You haven't just hit the wall, but the fence, the garden, the house, the street, the whole fucking estate. Your are buggered.
And then the crowd shouts, 'Go on Nick' - Fuck off. 'Keep Going' - what the fuck do you think I'm trying to do? ' Don't stop' - No shit Sherlock. You have officially turned into a demon. You now hate the crowd and the marathon and everything. You question why you are doing it, what you are doing here? You hate everything. It;s shit. You just want to stop,
And then it comes. The crowd. The reason you are doing it. The encouragement the Will, the energy you can draw from their energy. You are looking for that one spark that will help you through. That will change you. Give you strength when you don't think you can go on......and then it comes, from the back, from someone you cannot see. The words you were waiting for...................
"......Nearly there. Only another 8 miles to go........" Boom, pass me the gun. Crushing.
So, that ladies and gentlemen in a nutshell is the London Marathon. I have done 4. This will be my 5th. Here are my Stats;
2005 - 4hours 26mins - London Marathon - £2000 St Barts Hospital
2006 - 4 hours 13 mins (In Ironman)
2007 - 3 hours 51 mins - London Marathon - £1500 Notting Hill Housing Trust
2008 - 3 hours 37 mins - London Marathon - £1200 Notting Hill Housing Trust
2010 - 4 hours 11 mins (In Ironman) - £1200 Limbpower
2011 - 4 hours 07 mins - London Marathon - £1340 Action On Addiction
Marathons don't get any easier. You know the pain. You can sense it. But tomorrow I'm not going to lie, i would be pleased with anything under 4 hours. I hope for 3 hours 45 Min's, dream of 3 hours 30 but thing 3hours 50 Min's. It;s easy to say now, but different when you're on mile 21. You just want to finish the bastard.
So there we are. I've just told the flat below to shut the fuck up as they were having a drunken party. They did not want to argue with a moody man in a pair of pants and a bloated gut. Not having it tonight boys, sorry.
Off to bed soon. Up at 6am into Waterloo at 8am and we start at 9.45am. Looking forward to it now. Nervous, apprehensive and a little scared but maybe tomorrow i will get my head down, not behave like a pantomime dame and just enjoy being part of history and be one of the 35,000 doing this thing tomorrow.
Thanks for reading this, thanks for sponsoring me and thanks for being part of the journey. This one is for my father. It is for Action on addiction and he would have struggled to run to Thresher, let alone 26 miles, so I'm running for everyone touched by and suffered from addiction in their life.
Addiction is death, wither by slow living death or physical death. Marathon day is Life.
That's good enough for me
Get on it people and watch me trip up Ramsay
Loves
xx
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